Scientists find first Martian garnet in meteorite, but its origin remains unclear

An international team of scientists has identified a completely new type of rock on Mars and, for the first time, found the mineral garnet in a Martian sample. The discovery came from a fragment of the Martian meteorite NWA 8171, held in the Royal Ontario Museum’s collections, and was led by Tanya Kizovski of Brock University.

According to the University of Portsmouth, the find offers a rare glimpse into the planet’s ancient past and could help researchers piece together its 4.5-billion-year geological history. Its Martian origin has not yet been confirmed.How did scientists identify garnet on Mars for the first timeThe team found garnet, a mineral that had not been identified on Mars until now.

On Earth, garnet is a dark-red gem that was popular with the Ancient Egyptians, Romans and the Victorian elite, and it is the birthstone for January. The university also describes it as a cornerstone mineral in geology.Garnet provides a record of the tectonic forces, ore-forming processes and fluid-rock interactions that shape Earth's crust and mantle.